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Portland Goes To Hell: The Death Of An American City
Issues & Insights ^ | 7/21/2020 | The Editorial Board

Posted on 07/21/2020 3:45:57 AM PDT by IBD editorial writer

Portland, Oregon, was once known as the quintessentially nice Northwestern city. Its nickname, “The Rose City,” was given to it by a Baptist group that held a convention there over a century ago. Sadly, today, riot-riven Portland smells like anything but roses.

The city has been the locus of nonstop violent protests for 51 days and counting. And really, calling them protests is incorrect: They are acts of outright rebellion, with many participants openly calling for the dismantling of the United States.

The Daily Caller described the mayhem and posted videos of it, which included the attempted torching of the Police Association building:

"Portland has seen over 50 days of protests and rioting, and Saturday proved to be no different. Daily Caller reporters were at the scene where rioters squared off with officers after tearing down fencing and using it to barricade the federal courthouse. …

Outside of the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse, hundreds gathered and immediately began removing fencing surrounding the park and courthouse that had been erected by officers. Some rioters barricaded the building and began to taunt officers by banging on the walls and yelling for them to come outside."

While all this was going on, more “largely peaceful” protesters broke into the police union’s building and tried to burn it down. That’s called arson, and it’s a felony.

Who’s behind all this? Antifa and Black Lives Matter, of course. But they aren’t the only ones. There are lots of other leftists of various affiliations agitating the crowds.

(Excerpt) Read more at issuesinsights.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Government; US: Oregon
KEYWORDS: antifa; blm; portland; portland4ccp; portland4china; portlandvsusa; riots
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1 posted on 07/21/2020 3:45:57 AM PDT by IBD editorial writer
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To: IBD editorial writer

Political correct way of putting it.

Personally, my title would have been more straight forward: Portland becomes a sh*thole.....along with a host of other Leftist run cities....Detroit, Chicago, Seattle, NYC, LA, etc., etc., etc.


2 posted on 07/21/2020 3:49:04 AM PDT by cranked
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To: IBD editorial writer

Mayor of Portland - Ted Wheeler - DEMOCRAT

Governor of Oregon - Kate Brown - DEMOCRAT

That’s the REAL problem, not the rioters. The rioting could be stopped in 15 minutes but these two DEMOCRATS don’t want to do that.


3 posted on 07/21/2020 3:55:28 AM PDT by GrandJediMasterYoda (As long as Hillary Clinton remains free equal justice under the law will never exist in the USA)
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To: IBD editorial writer

In about a month or so, tinker bell Ted will be begging for federal dollars to bail out his shit hole of a city.


4 posted on 07/21/2020 4:01:36 AM PDT by dearolddad
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To: IBD editorial writer
"Portland Goes To Hell: The Death Of An American City"

And if the American People are foolish enough NOT to re-elect President Trump (note tagline), this November, and a solid Republican majority in both houses of Congress, the USA will go to hell: the death of America!

5 posted on 07/21/2020 4:05:42 AM PDT by Savage Beast (President Trump, loving God, America, and the American People, is on the Side of love the Angels!)
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To: Savage Beast

Think of all the suicide bombers we are preventing from achieving their jihadi goals with all this self-destruction. Downright Islamophobic is what it is!


6 posted on 07/21/2020 4:09:46 AM PDT by MarDav
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To: IBD editorial writer
Portlanders have character issues. Let them reap what they've sowed.
7 posted on 07/21/2020 4:11:26 AM PDT by Vision (Obama corrupted, sought to weaken and fundamentally change America; he didn't plan on being stopped.)
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To: IBD editorial writer

Indisputably a suicide


8 posted on 07/21/2020 4:12:58 AM PDT by wny
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To: GrandJediMasterYoda

What’s the story with Portland? When did it become so radical? It is still a predominantly white city but it seems the whites are far more radicalized and violent talking and dominate these crazy Antifa led demonstrations. I looked at the 2016 presidential election results -but for Multnomah County where Portland is located, Trump would have won Oregon. But Clinton won that county with 76 percent of the vote (Trump got 17 percent) and a 208,000 vote margin. I have to admit, I was there only once and it was 20 years ago. There was a fairly large number of homeless on the streets but it seemed to be quite nice and orderly in the downtown area.


9 posted on 07/21/2020 4:14:08 AM PDT by laconic
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To: IBD editorial writer

“Portland Goes To Hell...”

Inevitable end result of democrat rule. They’d do it to the whole country if they could.


10 posted on 07/21/2020 4:18:24 AM PDT by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: IBD editorial writer

“Portland Goes To Hell”

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.


11 posted on 07/21/2020 4:19:36 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam (If 100% of us contracted this Covid Virus only 99.997% would be left to tell our story.)
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To: IBD editorial writer

A riot by any other name would still smell like peat...


12 posted on 07/21/2020 4:21:20 AM PDT by Tennessee Nana
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To: IBD editorial writer

History will not be kind to those who let thos go on. Speaking of our side.


13 posted on 07/21/2020 4:30:14 AM PDT by Wilderness Conservative (Nature is the ultimate conservative)
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To: cranked

I wonder when the civil war II starts which side will be the side to be on. If the left wins the federal level then i will be on the side of secession.


14 posted on 07/21/2020 4:32:53 AM PDT by kvanbrunt2 (spooks won on day 76)
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To: IBD editorial writer

Washington and Oregon are both beautiful states and I would move there in a heartbeat, but they are liberal hellholes. Not sure how they got that way. Probably their proximity to California.


15 posted on 07/21/2020 4:33:31 AM PDT by Envisioning (Carry safe, always carry, everyday, everywhere.)
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To: cranked

This has gotten waaay out of hand. And getting worse.
Time to put an end to this anarchy.
Use force. Rubber bullets, tear gas, sound cannons (or whatever they call them), fire hoses.


16 posted on 07/21/2020 4:35:46 AM PDT by Vinnie
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To: laconic

As the intro to the show Portlandia puts it, “Portland is where young people go to retire...”


17 posted on 07/21/2020 4:36:54 AM PDT by Antioch (Benedikt Gott Geschickt)
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To: laconic

I assume like most of the country, it’s the Marxist indoctrination of kids and young adults in education that is coming home to roost. The Soviets were right, they said the way to turn the USA communist was through education and that’s exactly what happened. They infiltrated it, took it over, and now we have a bunch of freakin Bolsheviks threatening the nation and nobody has the balls to declare them domestic enemies and take them out. So I assume this will continue until they up the ante and start mass killing people with bombs and other methods, and then we will see if Democrats and Republicans still run and hide.


18 posted on 07/21/2020 4:36:59 AM PDT by GrandJediMasterYoda (As long as Hillary Clinton remains free equal justice under the law will never exist in the USA)
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To: IBD editorial writer

****Again, you’re using FR to pimp your own blog to get hits on your own website***
***Post your entire article from your own blog...NOT AN EXCERPT!***

Portland, Oregon, was once known as the quintessentially nice Northwestern city. Its nickname, “The Rose City,” was given to it by a Baptist group that held a convention there over a century ago. Sadly, today, riot-riven Portland smells like anything but roses.

The city has been the locus of nonstop violent protests for 51 days and counting. And really, calling them protests is incorrect: They are acts of outright rebellion, with many participants openly calling for the dismantling of the United States.

The Daily Caller described the mayhem and posted videos of it, which included the attempted torching of the Police Association building:

Portland has seen over 50 days of protests and rioting, and Saturday proved to be no different. Daily Caller reporters were at the scene where rioters squared off with officers after tearing down fencing and using it to barricade the federal courthouse. …

Outside of the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse, hundreds gathered and immediately began removing fencing surrounding the park and courthouse that had been erected by officers. Some rioters barricaded the building and began to taunt officers by banging on the walls and yelling for them to come outside.

While all this was going on, more “largely peaceful” protesters broke into the police union’s building and tried to burn it down. That’s called arson, and it’s a felony.

Who’s behind all this? Antifa and Black Lives Matter, of course. But they aren’t the only ones. There are lots of other leftists of various affiliations agitating the crowds.

One in particular who’s come to our attention is a so-called organizer of the violent protests. She describes herself in a viral Twitter video: “My name is Lilith Sinclair, I’m an Afro-Indigenous non-binary local organizer here in Portland, organizing for the abolition of not just the militarized police state but also the United States as we know it.”

Just so you know, “abolition” in this context means “violent overthrow.”

Alrighty, then! So much for these being “peaceful demonstrations” about “social justice,” as the media keep telling us ad nauseam. By the way, Sinclair and her cohorts call Portland “stolen land,” and thus feel anything they do is justified. For extremists, ends, however mistaken or evil, always justify the means.

The fevered rhetoric by the left predictably has engendered violence, which has been met with an equally predictable response by the federal government to protect its property, buildings and, most of all, employees.

Far-left activists across the nation decried “storm troopers” and lied about “unidentified” federal troops that whisked away demonstrators in unmarked vans to unknown fates. The truth: Photos clearly show “Police,” “Homeland Security” and other identifying marks on their clothing

Let us add as a note to Portland’s Antifa, BLM and their Wokester supporters: Yes, when you break the law, you get arrested.

Not surprisingly, after the federal government did its job, the American Civil Liberties Union stepped in on the side of the rioters and sued the government to keep it from further enforcing the law. This has nothing to do with First Amendment free speech rights, as the ACLU claims. It’s about violent lawbreaking, assaults on citizens and police, and wanton destruction of property. All against the law. ACLU supports it.

This is part of a pattern of how the left works: Destroy the rule of law, the backbone of our free republic. Intimidate ordinary citizens into silence. Then support and elevate rule by power of unelected street thugs in Antifa and BLM. The meek may inherit the earth, but they won’t get the big cities.

None of what we’re seeing should be viewed as a surprise or some sort of accident. Far from it. The city’s mayor, Ted Wheeler, and Portland’s far-left city council, have not only permitted the violence, but enabled and encouraged it – just as mayors in Seattle, Chicago, New York, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles have done.

You might think Wheeler & Co. would be grateful for U.S. troops restoring some semblance of order in the out-of-control city. Nope. Instead a few days ago the mayor told federal officials “Keep your troops in your own buildings, or have them leave our city.”

An invitation to more riots, in short.

That’s why federal police had to step in to restore order. Radical politicians refused to do their duty.

We’re seeing similar negligence from the now-openly socialist Democratic Party. Led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrats have expressed their “alarm” at President Donald Trump daring to enforce the nation’s laws. Americans should think long and hard before they mark their ballots in November.

As for Portland, lawlessness will take its toll on business and the local economy, as it inevitably does.

The city, already hit by a wave of pandemic shutdowns, will soon face closures due to riots and unrest. They’re already happening. The anger among some business owners is palpable.

“I don’t think the majority of social-justice warriors are truly concerned with justice,” said Nick Zukin, who just closed the doors of his Portland restaurant, Mi Mero Mole. “I think they enjoy causing people pain and ‘social justice’ gives them an excuse.”

So far, departures from Portland remain largely anecdotal, with little hard evidence – yet. But as has happened before elsewhere, you can expect a flood of business-closings and relocations in coming months and years.

As a piece in Oregonlive.com noted, more than a month into the chaos, businesses remain “furious, not only at the people who broke into their stores but also at the police for failing to intervene.”

In June, the Portland Tribune reported $30 million in business losses due to rioting and looting, based on a local Chamber of Commerce survey. That includes a bill of more than $6 million in overtime during the riots for local cops.

Meanwhile, from March to late June, Portland accounted for roughly half of all Oregon’s jobless claims, despite being just 15% of the state’s population. Things will only get worse as businesses flee.

This is how cities die. By electing ideologues who don’t care about enforcing the law, who show contempt for average taxpayers, and who impose leftist policies on the local community that damage the economy. Businesses and residents have been leaving Los Angeles and San Francisco, and now they’re walking away from Seattle.

Portland may be next. It’s already losing population, as a recent Wall Street Journal piece notes: “In just three months it has become clear that modern urban progressivism is politically incompetent and intellectually incoherent.”

Of course, it’s never too late to change course. But that’s never been the far left’s strong suit, has it?


19 posted on 07/21/2020 4:39:06 AM PDT by newfreep
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To: IBD editorial writer

Portland, by far, is the most depressing mon minority city, I have been in. Dreary gray skies,a downtown dotted by runaway kids with purple hair, and weird vegans and political correctness abound. Let them riot. The place cannot get any worse, and maybe a few fires will improve the feel of the dump.


20 posted on 07/21/2020 4:46:51 AM PDT by chuckee
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